Cataloging the Amazon Rain Forest's Soil Microbes

"The Amazon rain forest may be the largest reservoir of soil microbes on Earth, yet researchers acknowledge that many of these organisms are almost unknown to science, according to University of Massachusetts Amherst microbiologist Klaus Nüsslein. What is clear, he adds, is that the area is under great threat from modern agricultural practices and now is the time to identify, collect and preserve microbe-rich soils before it’s too late.

To accomplish this, UMass Amherst’s Nüsslein, with colleagues from the universities of Texas, Oregon, Michigan State and the University of Sao Paolo recently launched a microbial observatory project to catalog microbial diversity and study effects of local agricultural practices in Brazil’s Rondonia region."